Claiming work and play in Hawaii

Lawyer takes New York pension credits while living for months in Maui

By RICK KARLIN Capitol bureau

Published
1:00 am EST, Friday, November 13, 2009

Attorney James Roemer is at the center of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo?s battle against pension abuses. Roemer spent up to three months a year at his Hawaiian vacation home while on the payroll of several Capital Region municipalities, according to court papers. less

Attorney James Roemer is at the center of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo?s battle against pension abuses. Roemer spent up to three months a year at his Hawaiian vacation home while on the payroll of several ... more

Photo: JAMES GOOLSBY

Photo: JAMES GOOLSBY

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Attorney James Roemer is at the center of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo?s battle against pension abuses. Roemer spent up to three months a year at his Hawaiian vacation home while on the payroll of several Capital Region municipalities, according to court papers. less

Attorney James Roemer is at the center of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo?s battle against pension abuses. Roemer spent up to three months a year at his Hawaiian vacation home while on the payroll of several ... more

Photo: JAMES GOOLSBY

Claiming work and play in Hawaii

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

ALBANY — A lawyer at the center of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's battle against pension abuses spent up to three months a year at his Hawaiian vacation home while on the payroll of several Capital Region municipalities, according to court papers.

James Roemer was "for six to 12 weeks of every year ... at his second home in Maui," according to a confidential informant interviewed last year by Cuomo's office.

Around that time, Roemer and his law firm provided legal services to Schenectady, Saratoga Springs and Colonie as well as Sullivan and Schoharie counties.

Mention of Roemer's Hawaiian sojourns was part of an affirmation — similar to an affidavit — from Assistant Attorney General Darcy Goddard. It is part of the effort to let Cuomo's team subpoena lawyers they suspect of pension abuse.

On Thursday, a mid-level appeals court upheld Cuomo's efforts to subpoena Roemer and another attorney, John Hogan, who lives in the Binghamton area.

For more than a year, Cuomo's office has been investigating scores of lawyers statewide who he claims wrongly listed themselves as employees of towns, school districts and other government bodies when they should be considered independent contractors.

The employee designation earns the lawyers credits in the state pension system.

While Cuomo as well as state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli have been working to strip pension credits from these lawyers, Roemer and others have fought back, contending that they were in the pension system for years with the full knowledge of prior comptrollers.

Roemer said the matter of his time in Maui is a "red herring."

"I took maybe four weeks' vacation, maybe five — and those were always working vacations," he said. " ... I did the work for which I was paid."

The Maui trips were revealed by an unnamed former employee of Roemer's law firm who came forward voluntarily.

Roemer contends Cuomo shouldn't be issuing many of his subpoenas against lawyers.

"Cuomo was issuing subpoenas like a traffic enforcement officer in Albany," said Roemer.

Cuomo spokesman John Milgrim said that Goddard's court papers speak for themselves.

Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com